Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gets the headlines after netting his first Premier League hat-trick in Arsenal’s 4-2 win over Leeds United at the Emirates on Sunday, but the goal that best highlighted the Gunners’ superiority was scored by Héctor Bellerín with must-see contributions from Bukayo Saka and Dani Ceballos.
Manchester United has arguably been the biggest surprise in women’s football this season. Casey Stoney’s side, with new signings Tobin Heath and Christen Press, surged to the top of the table in just its second season in the Women’s Super League. It looked like the Red Devils could actually challenge the established elites — Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal — for the league crown.
Those hopes were dashed on Friday as Man City humbled United 3-0 in a one-sided Manchester Derby, capped off by a stunning chip shot from Caroline Weir.
Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur had Europa League last-32 games moved to different venues on Friday after COVID-19 regulations made travelling to and from their opponents' countries impossible to manage.
Both legs of Arsenal's tie against Benfica have been moved to neutral venues due to travel restrictions in the United Kingdom with respect to arrivals from Portugal.
The first leg, which was due to be played at the Estadio Da Luz on Feb. 18, has been moved to Rome while the second leg will be played in Athens at Olympiakos Piraeus' ground a week later.
According to Transfermarkt, 11,148 transfers were officially made between January 1 and February 1, with the transfer fees totalling a little over $600 million.
While significantly less than the 18,488 transfers worth $1.6 billion that occurred last January, it's still a lot to take in.
But we've made it easy for you.
Here's The18's five-minute guide to the most important transfers of this year's winter window:
1. Sébastien Haller (West Ham → Ajax)
There is nothing more frustrating in the sports world right now than being an Arsenal fan. Two more Arsenal red cards turned what looked like an impressive performance against Wolves into a 2-1 defeat on Tuesday.
At least if you’re a Knicks fan, you expect failure at this point.
David Luiz (again) and Bernd Leno were the culprits for Mikel Arteta’s side this time out as another positive showing was undone by red cards. Since Arteta took charge 13 months ago, Arsenal has been shown nine red cards, six more — 6! — than any other club during that span.
Bruno Fernandes joined Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon a year ago Friday. In that time, he’s become the Red Devils’ most important player, scoring and assisting at an incredible rate. This season alone, he’s supplied 16 goals and 10 assists in 31 appearances.
But he was lucky to avoid all punishment for a bad challenge on Granit Xhaka on Saturday. Had the roles been reversed, few doubt the result would have been a red card for the Arsenal man.
Arsenal have signed Real Madrid midfielder Martin Ødegaard on loan until the end of the season, the two clubs announced on Wednesday.
Ødegaard, 22, has made only three LaLiga starts for Real and was also linked with a move to Spanish rivals Real Sociedad, where he spent last season on loan, helping the club to finish sixth and qualify for the Europa League.
✍️ It's øfficial… pic.twitter.com/4eV5gNjK3x
Soccer is one of the very few sports that boasts competitions where small, local sides are able to face off against the best teams in the country. These matchups capture the imagination while providing a sense of hope and magic to a small group of supporters.
Domestic cups have long provided smaller clubs with the opportunity to prove their mettle by facing nationally recognized sides, and while major upsets are rare, just the slightest hope of an improbable win is enough to cause local pandemonium and stir significant interest among neutral supporters.
If you’re FC Barcelona, do you want the good news first, or bad news? The good news is that, according to Deloitte’s annual report for the world's richest soccer teams 2021, Barcelona was the highest-earning club in 2020! The bad news is that total revenue was decreased by nearly $153 million, a precipitous fall of 15 percent from 2019’s earnings. Oh, and you’re also $1.46 billion in debt.
As 19-time Süper Lig champions residing in the cultural and historic center of Istanbul, Fenerbahçe has long captured the imagination of football fans around the globe. Images of the Eternal Rivalry — the pitched battle between bitter derby foes Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray — are enough to drive the most ignorant of Americans into a Wikipedia deep dive.